TEDxNipissingU announces speakers

TEDxNipissingU is proud to announce the first five speakers who will be presenting at the upcoming conference on March 8.George Kouronis, Dr. Peter Sale, Roy Slack, Ken Stange and Lou Hood will each deliver an engaging presentation at TEDxNipissingU, taking place at Nipissing’s Muskoka campus.  More speakers will be announced each Wednesday morning leading up to the event.
To apply to attend, please visithttp://www.TEDxNipissingU.com. Applications are currently open and will close at 11:59 p.m. on February 24. All applicants will be notified of their selection status before March 1. Admission to TEDxNipissingU is free for accepted attendees.
A live webcast will be made available on the TEDxNipissingU website for those unable to attend. The live webcast of TEDxNipissingU will be streamed all day to participating high schools in North Bay, Muskoka, and Brantford. The TEDx talks will provide a robust platform for conversation amongst students both in, and out, of the classroom.
George Kouronis is a TV presenter, adventurer and explorer who specializes in the extremes of the natural world. His program "Angry Planet" has aired in over 100 countries on the Travel Channel and other networks and he is a regular contributor to news channels and documentary programs for such outlets as: CNN, Discovery Channel, History Channel, National Geographic, BBC and many others. His talk will answer the question, “is there anything left to explore?” With the global population swelling up above 7 billion people, there are still amazing places to discover here on planet Earth that no human has ever set eyes upon. Discoveries that we could never imagine possible really are there, waiting to be revealed.
Dr. Peter Sale is an assistant director at United Nations University’s Institute for Water, Environment and Health, and is professor emeritus at the University of Windsor. Educated at the University of Toronto, and the University of Hawaii, his research into ecology of coral reefs spanned a career at the University of Sydney, (1968-87), the University of New Hampshire (1988-93), and the University of Windsor (1994-2006). His recent book, Our Dying Planet, tells the story of our impacts on the environment from the perspective of an ecologist who has seen environmental decline with his own eyes. It provides a compelling explanation of why we have to make some serious changes if we want to live a sustainable future.
Roy Slack is a professional engineer who graduated from Queen’s University in 1982 with a degree in Mining Engineering. In late 1998 he started Cementation’s operations in Canada as President. Today, Slack is responsible Cementation’s operations in North and South America, which include companies in the USA and Chile. The Cementation group and their Chilean partner Terraservice were involved in the mine rescue program at the San Jose mine in Chile. In August of 2010 a fall of ground trapped 33 miners 700m below the surface in a mine in Northern Chile. The world watched as the Chilean government and the global mining industry joined forces to apply the latest in drilling and mine rescue technology to find and rescue the trapped miners. By October 13, 2010, all the miners had been safely brought to surface. Mr. Slack’s talk will attempt to answer what life underground was like for these miners, and provide insight into the operation that captivated the world.
Ken Stange is a writer, a visual artist and occasional scientific researcher. His works include 10 books of poetry and fiction, hundreds of publications in literary magazines, and he recently won the Exile/Vanderbilt prize for short fiction.  He also has had articles in computer magazines, written commercial software for test evaluation, been an arts columnist and published in refereed scientific journals on empirical aesthetics, statistics and computer research applications.  He integrates his various interests in a course he teaches on The Psychology of Art and Creativity at Nipissing University, where he is a tenured lecturer in the department of psychology. His talk will focus on how science is redefining creativity.
Lou Hood — along with her husband Brigadier General Mike Hood, and lifelong teacher (and father of Alanis) Alan Morissette — is the co-founder of we(e)press, a charity children's book publishing house. The charity’s mission is to promote education and literacy in the developing world, particularly in Africa, where half of the 72 million children still awaiting the opportunity to go to school live. By publishing children’s books with global village themes and context, and by allocating 100 percent of the proceeds from the sale of these books to their charitable programs, we(e)press hopes to provide families with books that serve as conversation-starters. Hood’s talk will focus on how we can grow globally-minded Canadians.
For more information about the event, please visitwww.TEDxNipissingU.com orwww.facebook.com/TEDxNipissingU. For regular event updates, follow @TEDxNipissingU on Twitter or check out the iPhone app TEDxNipissingU.